Choke Points

by Trevor Scott

  Jake and Fox One went to the far side of the dining room.

  Fox One whispered, “Are you sure she’s okay for this op?”

  “Yes,” Jake said. “I’ve seen her in action. She can hold her own. Besides, it might be nice to have a local in our back pocket. Which reminds me. What kind of diversion do you have planned to keep the local cops away?”

  The strike team leader smiled. “What makes you think we have anything planned?”

  Jake didn’t budge.

  “Alright. The boys set a few devices before coming back. The first one will take out the power in this area at precisely twenty-one fifty. Seconds later, two more will go off. One is to the west of here and the other is to the east, close to that bridge that looks like the Golden Gate. We expect no casualties from the explosions, but it will attract all police in those areas.”

  “Good plan,” Jake said, and then checked his watch. “We should be going.”

  “Roger that. Just comm check left.”

  Fox One had them turn on their comm units and each one of them went through their call signs. They designated Carla as Eagle Three. Comm check done, they grabbed their gear and headed toward the back door.

  They decided to take three vehicles. Fox One and Two were in one of the SUVs, Fox Three and Four were in the other black SUV. Then Jake and Sirena got into Carla’s personal vehicle.

  The three vehicles drove slowly through the residential neighborhood. When they got close to the safe house, the second SUV veered off and headed toward the back alley. They would hold in place until the front assault, catching anyone coming their way.

  Fox One pulled over to the curb and shut down his engine. Carla parked just behind that vehicle.

  “Are you ready?” Jake asked Carla.

  Letting out a deep breath, Carla said, “I hope so.”

  Suddenly, Jake felt a hand on his shoulder from Sirena behind him. He turned and saw a slight smile on her face. Sirena was in her element. But he knew that not everyone was as tough as his girl.

  He turned back to Carla and said, “You stick with Sirena like glue. You go where she goes. You shoot when she shoots. Understand?”

  Carla nodded her head.

  He checked his watch and saw that the first explosive would go off within two minutes. He knew that Fox One would be monitoring the local police channels. But they wouldn’t need that. Almost exactly two minutes later, the lights in the homes went dark, as did the street lights. Now the area was in total darkness.

  “Ready to rock and roll?” Jake asked, flipping down his NVGs.

  But he didn’t wait for their answers. He got out and went to the curb next to the SUV. The two women did the same thing. Fox One and Two met them and without saying a word started walking up the block toward their target. Even with the total darkness outside, they still hung close to the stone walls along the edge of the properties.

  Over their comm, they all heard, “In place Three and Four.”

  Fox One said, “Lead team nearly in place.”

  They all crept forward until they reached an opening in the wall and the sidewalk leading up to the front door.

  Fox One paused and said, “In place.” He looked back at his team one last time, getting a thumbs up by each member.

  “Moving in,” Fox One said.

  Behind them, off in seemingly every direction, was the sound of sirens going off. Jake knew that the police were on the move away from their position.

  The line moved in quickly. Fox One first, followed by Jake and Sirena and Carla, and Fox Two came in last, watching their six.

  Fox One got to the front door and instead of kicking it in he simply checked to see if it was locked. He smiled when he found it unlocked.

  That was some arrogance, Jake thought. But better for them.

  The five of them went inside one after the next.

  A man suddenly appeared carrying a small flashlight. Fox Two yelled something in Chinese, but that didn’t make the man surrender. Instead, he pulled a gun from its holster and aimed it toward them.

  Fox One fired one bullet, dropping the man at the base of a wide staircase.

  They moved forward, stepping over the dead Chinese man.

  Jake caught movement up the stairs so he headed up to clear that. He felt Sirena on his back end and hoped Carla was right behind her.

  By the time Jake reached the second floor, he could hear two distinct sets of gunfire. One salvo came from the rear of the house, where Fox Three and Four had been holding tight. The second firefight was coming from the first floor, and that one continued for quite some time.

  Jake pushed forward to clear the second level.

  Movement ahead to the right. Jake pushed his shoulder against the wall and opened fire just as he saw the first muzzle flash.

  Silence.

  With a quick swivel of his head, he saw that Sirena was not behind him. It was Carla.

  “Where’s Eagle Two?” Jake asked Carla.

  “Down the other hallway,” Carla said, her voice hurried.

  “Alright,” Jake said. “Stick with me.”

  Carla nodded and tapped his butt.

  Moving down the hallway, not sure if he had hit the shooter, Jake stepped faster.

  The man jumped out of the right side and fired. But Jake was ready, firing a flurry of shots and dropping the guy in the center of the hallway.

  More gunshots below and a calm Fox One and Fox Two reporting over the comm that they had neutralized another one.

  Jake had a singular thought running through his mind. He needed to get the man and woman who had taken out their security officers.

  Coming to the first closed door, Jake shoved inside and swept his gun around the room. It was a bedroom with sparse furnishings. Just a bed and a small desk.

  He checked the closet while Carla looked under the bed.

  “Clear,” Carla reported.

  “Clear,” Jake confirmed, as he swiveled back quickly to the corridor. Then he whispered to Carla, “Next time you hold tight at the doorway to make sure nobody backtracks on us.”

  She nodded understanding.

  This place was much bigger than he first suspected. He kept checking his six when he heard Sirena clearing a room on her own. He didn’t like her doing that. They should have stuck together. But that side of the corridor was only a couple of rooms. His side had six to clear.

  At the next door, the one the man had jumped from, Jake hesitated a second to make sure Carla would hold her ground at the entry. Then he pushed through the open door.

  Flashes came immediately and Jake returned fire.

  Without knowing it at first, Jake found himself on his back against a wall with what felt like a stack of bricks on his chest. He couldn’t breathe.

  Carla rushed to him. “Eagle One is hit,” she said through the comm, and then kneeled next to him.

  “Barely,” Jake said to reassure the team. Then to Carla he said, “Get back to the door.”

  She barely left Jake when there was a flash of movement. Carla shot two three-round bursts and Jake could hear the distinct sound of a body hitting the wooden floor in the corridor.

  Jake recovered and got to his feet, moving with purpose to backup Carla. “You take the next room,” he said to her.

  Carla seemed in shock, but she nodded agreement.

  The two of them vectored quickly across the hallway to the next door on the left. Without hesitation, Carla shoved into the door and Jake covered her at the doorframe.

  While she swept the room, Jake checked both sides of the corridor to see if he could catch a glimpse of Sirena. But he couldn’t. Just as he turned back toward their side of the corridor, he caught movement.

  Someone then started yelling in Chinese, but Jake could only pick up a couple of the words, and those were curse words he had picked up from an old girlfriend.

  He wasn’t sure if the person was yelling to give up or taunting him. Then a woman’s voice came from the next room down on his side. Th
e man and woman were obviously arguing about something.

  Jake asked into the comm, “Fox Two can you translate this?”

  “Still engaged,” Fox Two reported.

  “Clear,” Carla yelled behind Jake.

  Jake made a calculated decision to move on the woman first, since she was most likely the leader of the two.

  Sticking to the left side wall, Jake moved to the next door with purpose. He stopped for a second and pointed to himself, meaning he would breach this door.

  Without thinking, Jake lowered the door lever and shoved into the room. But he tripped over something just as the bullets started flying in his direction.

  Jake rolled to the floor and found his target. He emptied the last of his magazine until the gun wouldn’t shoot anymore. Then, instead of replacing the magazine, he found his Glock and aimed it toward where his target had been. But he didn’t have to fire. He found the Chinese woman dead on the floor riddled with bullet strikes. In seconds he cleared the rest of the room. This was the master bedroom, he thought. Then he saw what he had tripped over—it was a dead body. This one had a hole in the back of his skull.

  He turned quickly and said “Clear” as he got to Carla at the doorframe.

  “Are you all right?” he asked her.

  She nodded yes.

  “One more room,” he said.

  They crossed the hallway. More gunfire came from the first floor.

  Jake shoved into the next room, expecting gunfire. But what he found was a man against the far wall with a handgun at his side. He had shot himself in the head. Jake quickly cleared the rest of the room and then went to collect Carla.

  As Jake got to the staircase, Sirena appeared and ran to him.

  “Are you alright?” Sirena asked him.

  “Took a couple to the vest,” Jake said.

  She shook her head as she put pressure on Jake’s shoulder. “One missed the vest. It’s just a graze, though.”

  Then, over the comm came a voice, “Fox One. We’ve got company.”

  “Second floor clear,” Jake said. “Coming down.”

  Now Jake could hear the police cars approaching. They’d have to hurry.

  32

  The team had barely made it out the back door to the alley, where they all piled into the large SUV and escaped through a back route to the house the Gomez organization had rented temporarily.

  At the house, Fox Three, who had been a Navy medic on a SEAL team for years, provided care to those with injuries. The worst injury was a bullet through-and-through the thigh of Carla Matos. Luckily the bullet had missed the femoral artery and had nearly stopped bleeding by the time they got back to the house.

  Jake didn’t realize it, but he had also been hit. But his wound was not that bad. When two bullets had struck his vest, a third had caught the upper edge of the vest by his left shoulder. The bullet had mushroomed off of the vest and cut a swath through his shoulder. It required a few stitches, some butterfly bandages, and a 4x4 bandage taped over it.

  Fox Two had taken a few splinters to his face where a bullet had ricocheted off a door frame a bit too close. Sirena had pulled the splinters and applied small bandages to the largest wounds.

  Jake sat next to Carla as the medic patched her up. “You’re lucky that bullet didn’t hit your main artery.”

  “I know,” she said. “Luckily, most of my body was behind you.”

  “What’s the matter?” he asked.

  “My car. We had to leave it behind.”

  “They might not even check on it,” he said. “They’re more likely to concentrate on the black SUV we left there.”

  “But it’s my personal car,” she argued.

  “You can pick it up once the police leave. Or, you can say it was stolen from outside your apartment last night.”

  She smiled at him. “You have a devious mind.”

  Sirena came over and said, “You don’t know the half of it.” Then she glanced at the medic and asked, “Will she survive?”

  The medic had just finished patching the back side of Carla’s leg, and used some Dermabond to make sure she wouldn’t blow the stitch job. Then he covered that with a bandage. “She’ll be as good as new in a couple of weeks. Change out the bandage every twenty-four hours. If you see any redness or discharge, make sure you get some anti-biotics.”

  Carla pulled up her pants and buckled them. “How will I explain that?”

  “Have a story ready,” Jake said. “Anything but a gunshot.”

  Fox One came over and shifted his head to Jake, meaning he needed a private moment.

  Jake met the man across the room. “What’s up?”

  “We’re too hot to travel,” Fox One said. “Can we hang out here for a day or two?”

  “Not a problem. Does the Agency have a plan for you?”

  “A flight in a couple of days.”

  “You’re set then.”

  “What about you and Sirena?” Fox One asked.

  “Our ride is waiting for us.”

  “Awesome.”

  Jake watched as the remaining team members cleaned weapons on the dining room table. He knew that if these men got caught with the weapons they would be in big trouble. The police would easily be able to check the ballistics.

  “What will you do with the guns?” Jake asked.

  “We have extra barrels. Those used in the assault will be dumped in the ocean. What about your handguns?”

  “Our guns are untraceable to us, but we’ll also dump the barrels.” Jake thought for a second, glancing across the room at Carla. “Could you take care of Carla for a couple of days. Make sure she’s alright? Maybe have someone hike down toward her car in the morning and see if they’ve taken it.”

  “Not a problem. Are you leaving tonight? It’s a hot mess out there.”

  “It always is, pal. But, yeah, we’re off in a minute.”

  Fox One extended his hand to Jake. They both turned a strong handshake into a hug. “Nice working with you. If you ever need anything, let me know.”

  “The Agency doesn’t have an exclusive contract with you?”

  “Nope. We’re free agents. Independent contractors.”

  “Good to know,” Jake said. “I can always use people I can trust.”

  “We’re kind of a ragtag crew,” Fox One said. “We’ve got the services covered. A marine, a soldier, a sailor and an airman.”

  “Sounds like the start of a bad joke.”

  “Well, there are a bunch of Chinese assholes who aren’t laughing now,” Fox One said.

  “You got that shit right.”

  Jake and Sirena pulled Carla aside and thanked her for her participation. “I hope we don’t get you into too much trouble,” Jake said.

  Carla shrugged. “I’m already suspended. All they can do is fire me now.”

  “That won’t happen,” Sirena said. Then she gave the woman a long hug and followed that up with a kiss on both cheeks.

  Jake did the same. “You take care.”

  “You too,” Carla said.

  Then Jake and Sirena said goodbye to the team. They collected their bags and headed out the door into the dark of night. The sirens that had been everywhere were now silent.

  “Where to now?” Sirena asked.

  “I texted Sancho for a ride. We’ll need to hike about a kilometer to the waterfront, though.”

  “Can your old legs carry you that far?” she asked.

  He assumed she was smiling, but couldn’t see her face in the darkness. “Bite me.”

  “I’ll do more than that once I get a chance.”

  “Good to know that libido still has a home in that menopause body of yours.”

  She smacked him in the left arm and he winced in pain. “I’m sorry. I forgot about your wound.”

  “My shoulder isn’t the problem,” he said. “But you’ve wounded my soul.”

  She put her arm around him and said, “Poor baby.”

  When they reached the sea front on the Aven
ida Da India, they barely got to the sidewalk in front of the Torre De Belem when their car pulled up to the curb.

  They put their bags in the trunk and got into the back seat. Without saying a word, the driver brought them to the airport and dropped them off at the Departures area of the terminal. From there, they walked to the private operations area of the airport.

  Waiting for them there was the flight crew for the Gulfstream. They all wandered out to the jet and Jake put their bags inside. Then he took his gun and holster off and set them inside his bag also. He found new clothes and quickly changed into them as the aircraft crew prepped for departure.

  “Can’t that wait?” Sirena asked.

  They had already gotten rid of the clothes they had used on the raid of the Chinese safe house, so Sirena’s question was not without merit.

  He pulled on a new black T-shirt and covered that with his leather jacket. Then he said, “I have to take care of something.”

  “You’re staying behind?” she asked.

  “Just for a day or so,” he said.

  “You don’t need a gun?”

  He needed to reassure her. “No. I only need to check on something at the Gomez plant. You know, with our chief of security killed by the Chinese, along with his deputy, Carlos would like me to vet some new candidates.”

  “That makes sense,” she said.

  Jake looked forward and saw that the flight attendant was about to close the cabin door. But he waved for her to wait a minute.

  “Are you sure you don’t need help?” Sirena asked.

  “No. It’s better if you get somewhere away from here and take care of our guns.”

  “You could take one of the three-eighties.”

  He shook his head. “I won’t need that for interviews. I better get going.”

  “Wait.” She went to Jake’s bag and pulled out a cord. “You’ll need to charge your phone.”

  “Good point.” He shoved the SAT phone charger into his coat pocket. Then he kissed Sirena.

  “One more thing,” she said. “Where am I going?”

  That was a damn good question. They had been burned in the Azores. He had been run out of his home in Calabria, Italy. And it was winter in Innsbruck, Austria. He wasn’t feeling that place anymore anyway. But where?